Uncertainty After Court Ruling on Open Carry
A Florida appeals court ruled the state’s ban on openly carrying a gun is unconstitutional last week. Attorney General James Uthmeier said, “I think the opinion was accurate. Open carry is now the law of the state.” He sent out a guidance memo to prosecutors and law enforcement and wrote his office would no longer prosecute open carry charges.
Technically, the ban on open carry is still the law on the books in Florida. That means outside of a few exceptions like hunting or fishing, you are not allowed to visibly carry a firearm in public that isn’t hidden from sight.
Orlando Criminal Defense Attorney James Phillips with the firm Katz & Phillips, P.A. joins Engage to explain the impact of the court’s decision and the Attorney General’s authority to instruct Florida’s law enforcement agencies to ignore the open carry ban.
Some Floridians are enthusiastic about this ruling, but not everyone is on the same page. It may depend on where you are in Florida whether you see someone openly carrying a gun.
After the court ruling, several Central Florida Sheriff’s issued guidance to their residents in videos posted online. Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood joins Engage to talk about how the changes are impacting his agency.
Stetson Students Unite Against Political Violence
It's no secret we are living in politically polarized times. While polarization is a sentiment that people have expressed at many points throughout history and current day, we also can't ignore that things, at the very least, feel heightened right now. In the wake of the Charlie Kirk killing, the Democrat and Republican student groups at Stetson University in Deland have not only come together to issue a joint statement against political violence, but to also sit down together for a conversation.
Mackenzie Cunningham is President of the College Republicans. Asher Sochaczewski is President of Stetson College Democrats. The following is the statement they released along with the non-partisan Stetson Votes organization:
“We as organizations have our differences in policy, platform, etc. However at the end of the day we are all human beings, we are all Americans. The shooting of Charlie Kirk at his rally in Utah Valley University is a disgusting example of political violence that is becoming too common in this country. We pray for Charlie’s family and we will not stand for any acts of violence in this country.”
Cunningham and Sochaczewski join Engage to discuss how they found common ground.
“For Colored Girls” Choreopoem Resonates
A unique performance at Theater West End is running through Sunday. In 1976, playwright Ntozake Shange published a play so revolutionary in construct, it spawned its own genre called the choreopoem. The performance was an amalgam of movement and poetry, both delivering powerful messages reflective of the issues faced by Black women fifty years ago. Those issues are still present in the lives of Black women today, as presented in, “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf.”
The play addresses a wide spectrum of topics including addiction, poverty, sexual and physical abuse, and racism, but there is a throughline that identifies efforts to find strength and joy through unity. The stories are told through dance and poetry in a series of vignettes by seven nameless women, identified by the colors red, yellow, orange, brown, green, blue, and purple. Engage producer Richard Copeland stopped by the playhouse in Sanford to meet performers Bethany Hemmans, Desiree Montez, and Roberta Emerson and learn more about the play that still holds resonance today.
